6-1
Chapter 6
Personality and
Lifestyles
Personality
6-2
• Personality refers to a person’s unique
psychological makeup and how it consistently
influences the way a person responds to his or
her environment.
• Most now agree that both personality and
situational factors play a role in determining
people’s behavior.
• Personality is usually involved, along with:
– A person’s choices of leisure activities, political
outlook, aesthetic tastes, and
– Other individual factors to segment customers in
terms of Lifestyles.
Consumer Behavior on the
Couch: Freudian Theory
Id
Oriented Towards
Immediate
Gratification
Ego
Referee in the Fight Between Temptation and Virtue
Superego
Person’s
Conscience
6-3
Motivational Research
• Applying Freudian ideas led to a perspective
known as Motivational Research, which has a
heavy emphasis on unconscious motives.
–
A basic assumption is that socially unacceptable
needs are channeled into acceptable outlets.
• This form of research relies on Depth
Interviews, which uses relatively few
consumers but probes deeply into each
person’s purchase motivations.
• Motivational Research has been attacked for
two reasons:
– Some feel it does not work,
– Some feel that it works too well.
6-4
Neo-Freudian Theories
Karen Horney
Alfred Adler
Harry Stack Sullivan
Carl Jung
6-5
Described People as: Moving
Toward Others (Compliant), Away
From Others (Detached), or
Against Others (Aggressive).
Proposed That Many Actions Are
Motivated by People’s Desire to
Overcome Feelings of Inferiority
Relative to Others.
Focused on How Personality
Evolves to Reduce Anxiety in
Social Relationships.
Analytical Psychology - Believed
That People are Shaped by the
Cumulative Experiences of Past
Generations which create
Archetypes.
Trait Theory
6-6
One Approach to Personality is to Focus on the
Quantitative Measurement of Traits, or Identifiable
Characteristics that Define a Person Such As:
Extroversion
Innovativeness
Materialism
Self-Consciousness
Need for Cognition
Problems With Trait Theory in
Consumer Research
6-7
• Many of the scales are
not sufficiently valid.
• Researchers make
changes in the research
instrument.
• Personality tests are
often developed only for
specific populations.
• Many trait scales are
intended to only measure
gross tendencies.
• Tests may not be
administered under the
best conditions.
• Many of the scales are not
well planned or thought
out.
Brand Personality
6-8
Brand Equity
Extent That a Consumer Holds Strong, Favorable,
and Unique Associations about a Brand in Memory.
Brand Personality
Assigning Personality Qualities to Inanimate Products
That Makes the Product Stand Out From the Competition.
Animism
Inanimate Objects are Given Qualities
That Make Them Somehow Alive.
Level 1: Object is Believed to
Possessed by the Soul of a Being.
i.e. Spokesperson in Advertising
Level 2: Objects are
Anthropormphized - Given
Human Characteristics.
i.e. Charlie the Tuna
Lifestyle: Who We Are, What We Do
6-9
• Lifestyle refers to a pattern of consumption
reflecting a person’s choices of how he or she
spends time and money.
• It represents how a person allocates income:
– To different products and services, and
– To specific alternatives within these categories.
• A Lifestyle Marketing Perspective recognizes
that people sort themselves into groups on the
basis of:
– Things they like to do,
– How they like to spend their leisure time, and
– How they choose to spend their disposable income.
Lifestyles
6-10
• Lifestyles as Group Identities
– Lifestyles are statements about who one is in society
and who one is not.
– Each person adds their own individuality to a chosen
lifestyle.
• Products Are the Building Blocks of Lifestyles
– Consumers often choose products, services, and
activities over others because they are associated
with a certain lifestyle.
– Lifestyle Marketing Strategies focus on product
usage in desirable social settings.
Linking Products to Lifestyles
People, Products, and Settings are Combined to
Express a Certain Consumption Style.
Person
Lifestyle
Setting
Product
6-11
Linking Products to Lifestyles
• Lifestyle Marketing Perspective
– Marketers must look at Patterns of Behavior to
understand consumers.
– Marketers must identify the set of products and
services that seems to be linked in consumers’
minds to a specific lifestyle.
• Product Complementarity occurs when the
symbolic meanings of different products are
related to each other.
– These sets of products, called Consumption
Constellations, are used by consumers to define,
communicate, and perform social roles. i.e. The
“Yuppie” was defined by a Rolex watch, BMW cars
and Gucci briefcases.
6-12
Conducting A Psychographic
Analysis
Forms of a
Psychographic Study:
Lifestyle Profile
Product-Specific Profile
Study That Uses Personality
Traits as Descriptors
General Lifestyle
Segmentation
Product-Specific
Segmentation
6-13
Definition of
Psychographics:
Involves the “.. use of
psychological, sociological,
and anthropological
factors... to determine how
the market is segmented by
the propensity of groups
within the market - and their
reasons - to make a
particular decision about a
product, person, ideology,
or otherwise hold an
attitude or use a medium.
AIOs and Psychographics
Activities
Interests
6-14
Opinions
Demographics - Describes Who Buys
Psychographic Profiles - Tells Why Consumers Buy
20/80 Rule
Uses of Psychographic
Segmentation
Market Social and
Political Issues
Develop Overall
Strategy
Communicate
Product Attributes
6-15
Define the
Target Market
Create a New
View of the Market
Position the
Product
VALS 2
6-16
Abundant Resources
Actualizers
Principle Oriented
Status Oriented
Action Oriented
Fulfilleds
Achievers
Experiencers
Believers
Strivers
Makers
Strugglers
Minimal Resources
Global Marketing and Culture
Taste and
Stylistic
Preferences
Cultural
Sensitivities
Areas
Affected by
Nationality
Modesty
Advertising
6-17
Major Consumer Trends
Environmentalism and
Green Marketing
A Return to Value
Time Poverty
Disillusionment of
Working Women
Decreased Emphasis
on Nutrition and Exercise
6-18
Major Consumer Trends
“Cocooning”
Nonconsumption
Individualism and
Mass Customization
A Laid-Back Lifestyle
Life in the Fast Lane
6-19